Johnson's Ranch served many functions. First and foremost, it was the home to his wife and nine children (seven surviving to adulthood). The ranch also served as a way station for thousands of emigrants crossing the Sierra Nevada via Johnson's Pass nearby Echo Summit; it contained a general store noted as being as fair as any store in Placerville, and hotel for 14 other non-family permanent residents. The ranch had a timber mill and was littered with gold mines, the most profitable being Mills Mine.