RENO, Nevada (AP) – Mark Twain is finally getting some recognition in the state where he assumed his pen name as a newspaper reporter nearly 150 years ago.

The Nevada State Board on Geographic Names has voted to name a cove on Lake Tahoe's northeast shore for Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain's real name. The name now goes to the US Board on Geographic Names for final action.

Nevada historians believe the site is where Twain accidentally started a wildfire in 1861 while preparing to cook dinner over a campfire.

He later assumed his pen name as a reporter in nearby Virginia City.

Nevada state Archivist Jeff Kintop, a board member, said there is no geographic feature in the state named for Twain, whose book 'Roughing It' put Nevada on the map.

"The name is fitting because he became Mark Twain here and developed his voice here," Kintop said. "It's also fitting because his description of Lake Tahoe in `Roughing It' is breathtaking."

Twain and a companion staked a timber claim in September 1861, weeks after he arrived in Carson City with his brother, Orion, then secretary of Nevada Territory.

That first trip to Lake Tahoe inspired Twain to write one of the most famous lines ever about the lake: "As it lay there with the shadows of the mountains brilliantly photographed upon its still surface, I thought it must surely be the fairest picture the whole earth affords."