The area that became Nevada passed to the United States after the Mexican-American War and remained unorganized until 1850, when the proposed Mormon State of Deseret was rejected and the land was divided among California and the territories of New Mexico and Utah, with Brigham Young appointed governor of Utah Territory on September 20, 1850. Nevada gained territorial status on March 2, 1861, after population growth driven by the Comstock Lode, and became a state on October 31, 1864, for political reasons tied to the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln's reelection, and support for the 13th Amendment, giving rise to its "Battle Born" identity. The panels also recount the Pony Express, organized in the winter of 1860 by Alexander Majors, William Waddell, and William Hepburn Russell as a fast mail route from Missouri to California using 120 riders, 400 horses, about 184 stations, and a route of roughly 1,900 miles, before it became obsolete after 19 months when the transcontinental telegraph reached the west. Life at stations such as Genoa was harsh, mail traveled in mochilas, rates were high, and during the Paiute uprising of 1860 the 14-year-old rider Billy Tate was killed after a fight in Nevada. Other panels present examples of pioneer medicine and sayings, including folk cures, the idea of a quacksalver, and the origins given here for phrases such as "seeing the elephant," "sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite," "mind your Ps and Qs," "stogie," and "bite the bullet."