Last Friday, I joined about 20 people on the trails of Lantern Hill to clean up the woods and get a history lesson during an Earth Day event.

During previous walks up Lantern Hill, group leader Jason Mancini said he had noticed lots of garbage strewn about, and came up with the idea to clean while giving information about the area.

Mancini, a senior researcher at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, said he’s found a deed from 1653 that refers to the 600-foot mound as Lantern Hill, and that it has lots of cultural significance throughout history.

“There’s a lot of reference to the name (Lantern Hill) as a beacon during the War of 1812 and the American Revolution,” Mancini said.

Mancini said he’s been with the museum and research center since the late 1990s, and the museum now has on loan an arrowhead found on Lantern Hill that dates to more than 10,000 years ago.

He had plenty of Pequot history, including one fact that surprised most of the attendees: nearly all Native Americans aged 15 to 40 in the 18th century were mariners that traveled and traded in the Caribbean and even further south.

Mancini discussed some of the injustices the Pequots have endured, including the theft of much of their land and the Pequot Massacre on Pequot Hill in Mystic. Now, he said, the reservation is about 1,700 acres.

“The Mystic River drainage is the heart of Pequot country,” Mancini said. “There’s lots of history in this corridor.”

As we walked, Mancini pointed out a shadbush, which looked ready to bloom. The legend is it blooms when the shad run in the river, and it was close. Once in bloom, they are more commonly known as juneberry.

I’d never been up Lantern Hill, but its views are breathtaking. On a clear day, Mancini said, you can see all the way to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, most of the state of Connecticut, as well as Long and Fisher’s Island across Long Island Sound. The trees seem to go on forever, with the museum poking through the treetops, as well as Foxwoods Casino. Off in the distance, you can see Mohegan Sun Casino as well.

Also visible throughout the walk and on neighboring Long Hill is evidence of the silica mine that opened in the 19th century and operated for approximately 100 years, Mancini said. Along the east side of the path, our group ran into four people rock climbing on a section that had been formed by miners blasting the hillside.

“I run lots of different kinds of programs to inform people of the cultural and historical landscape,” Mancini said during Friday’s event. “There’s lots of hidden history in the area, and those are the kinds of things I like to draw attention to.”

Volunteers who tagged along for the two-hour walk learned all this, among other things, and made a difference. Armed with garbage bags and gloves, the dedicated workers picked up bottles and cans that had been left behind by visitors to the beautiful wooded hill.

“I try to get out here every day, I love this place and I heard that (Mancini) would be out here cleaning,” Preston resident Marianne Lonardelli said. “It makes me sad that people leave their trash so I wanted to clean it up.”

Kudos to all the volunteers that came out to make a difference, whether on Lantern Hill or elsewhere in the area. Every little bit counts. And special thanks to Jason Mancini for his insightful program.