In 1849 William Knight, a hunter and trapper, established a ferry and trading post on the Stanislaus River, to serve the thousands of miners headed to the diggings at Sonora and other mining camps. Knight had previously accompanied John C. Frémont on expeditions in the 1840s, and "foresaw that Knights Ferry the Stanislaus was Nature's pathway through the mountains." This was one of many ferries that operated on the Stanislaus River in the following decades, including others at Byrne's Ferry (later replaced by a covered bridge) and Taylor's Ferry near Oakdale. Although Knight was killed later that year (reportedly in a gunfight), the settlement had already become the principal supply point of the region, with daily stage coach service to Stockton, and was named Knights Ferry in his honor. After Knight's death, Lewis Dent took over the ferry operations. In 1854 the ferry was replaced by a wooden covered bridge; within the next few years Knights Ferry also became the site of a hotel, court house, flour mill and the Tuolumne County jail. The settlement was largely destroyed during the Great Flood of 1862, which washed away the bridge, but it and the rest of the town were soon rebuilt. Knights Ferry became the seat of Stanislaus County that same year, until Modesto took its position in 1872.