The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
Undated; the creek's name predates the town
The legend, as told. Indiana's own tourism carrier (visitindiana.in.gov, updated 2023) tells it hedged in its own words: "As the story goes (and this might be apocryphal, so take it with a grain of salt), the Potawatomi collected some sort of tubers in the area that the earliest settlers called 'wild potato.' In time, the creek around this area became known as Potato Creek." The park's reference article tells the same stock without the hedge — Native Americans "collected tubers known as 'wild potatoes' from the creek banks" — and the lodge-groundbreaking carrier has the name "originating from the Potawatomi's practice of [consuming] water plant tubers, which settlers aptly dubbed 'potatoes.'" Verdict on the whole cluster: a consistent, widely carried legend — told as story by its best carrier, with its own apocrypha warning attached — printed here as legend, not as proven etymology. The folk etymology tested and failed: a travel-guide carrier claims "The park's name originates from the Native American word 'Potawatomi.'" No linguistic source supports it; it conflates the tribe's name with the creek's. Verdict: fails. And a trap excluded by name: the capsized-canoe, lost-potatoes legend belongs to Potato Creek, Pennsylvania — it is not this creek's story and is not imported.