Potato Creek is open year-round and supports various activities and facilities, including fishing, hiking, camping and mountain biking.

The northeast corner has been designated "Swamp Rose Nature Preserve"; now about 1 square mile is either wetlands or in Worster Lake.

In the 1830s, after the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and various treaties as well as forced migrations, settlers cut the forests and wetlands and turned them into agricultural fields.

[4] Indiana Governor Otis R. Bowen dedicated six square miles as Potato Creek Recreation Area on June 6, 1977.

[6] Mangus had begun his political career when part of his family's long time dairy farm was taken during expansion of U.S. Route 31; the section adjoining the park was later renamed in his honor.