About the Johnsville Historical Society
Established in 1984, the Johnsville Historical Society is a nonprofit organization and museum dedicated to preserving the architectural legacy and memorabilia of California's early gold-mining community.
Johnsville, California, is a historic town that emerged in the mid- to late-1800s, largely due to the bustling activities of the Plumas–Eureka gold mine and neighboring mines.
At the heart of Johnsville is the beautifully restored St. John's Church, built in 1899, where the Johnsville Historical Society (JHS) now operates and stores Gold Rush-era relics in its museum. The church was once
a place of worship and a gathering spot for the townspeople who lived here during the mining period.
The church was restored over many years through the efforts of Helena Josephine Navone (see "The Woman Behind the Johnsville Historical Society's Collection" below), JHS, and several volunteers. Visitors can explore the town's history and see the remnants of a time when fortune seekers flocked here to strike it rich.
Highlights of the JHS collection are featured on this website and on California Revealed, a nonprofit California State Library initiative that helps public libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and other heritage groups digitize, preserve, and provide online access to archival materials documenting the state’s histories, arts, and cultures.
JHS is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation and is supported exclusively through memberships and donations. All gifts and 100 percent of donations are tax deductible.
The Woman Behind the Johnsville Historical Society’s Collection
In the early 1900s, a woman named Helena Josephine Navone made a trip from Napa County, California, to the sleepy village of Johnsville, California. Helena suffered from allergies, so on the advice of her doctor, she sought the clean and clear air of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Why she chose the remote location of Johnsville has been lost to history.
But what she found in the historic gold-mining town of Johnsville was a slice in time of the latter half of the 1800s.
A self-proclaimed history nerd, Helena fell in love with Johnsville and carved out a life for herself in this remote gold-mining ghost town.
Johnsville was full of beautiful buildings left over from the gold-mining days and one that caught her eye was the old St. John’s Catholic Church (previously known as the Johnsville Mission Church, and today it’s the headquarters of the Johnsville Historical Society). She loved the church so much she started a movement in 1940 to restore the structure. She circulated collection boxes and posted large signs asking for donations to fund the church’s restoration—a project that would last until the year 2000, when the restoration was finally completed by the community of Johnsville and various volunteers. (Around this time she also fell in love with Johnsville resident A. Robert Pini and married him in 1944.)
Helena’s passion for historic preservation did not stop with the church. When the mining industry came to an end, the mining buildings and Johnsville’s residences were gradually abandoned. Since it was considered too much of a hassle to move the contents of these buildings, nearly everything was left behind by the miners and their families. Helena decided the abandoned artifacts were too valuable to leave unprotected, so she collected and stored as much as she could in her barn.
When Helena passed away in 1988 at age 86, she was buried in the Johnsville Cemetery next to her husband (look for the black granite Pini memorial headstone), and her relatives donated the historic artifacts she collected to the Johnsville Historical Society. Because of her foresight, the historical society has an extensive and incredibly unique view into the lives of the gold-mining community that occupied Johnsville dating from the 1849 Gold Rush to the 1930s, when the mining industry came to an end in this remote part of Northern California.
Written by David Daun
OUR HISTORY
