The site previously included a statue of Major John Mason, who led the forces that destroyed the fort; it was removed in 1995 after protests by Pequot tribal members.

The Pequots were accused of sheltering the murderers, and one of their villages was burned by a Massachusetts Bay Colony force led by John Endecott.

Captain John Mason led 90 colonists and 100 Mohegan Indians, later augmented by a band of Narragansetts, against the Pequot fort at Mystic.

In the early 1990s, members of the Pequot tribe petitioned for the statue's removal, claiming offense at the commemoration of a killer of innocent people, and that its location was ground they considered sacred.

Archaeological investigation of the summit area of Pequot Hill has yielded numerous Native American and early colonial artifacts, with features that are interpreted as a palisaded village.