Honey Creek State Park is an 828-acre public recreation area on a peninsula along Rathbun Lake in southern Iowa, known for hiking, swimming, boating, fishing, camping, and year-round outdoor activity. The area also preserves evidence of much older habitation, including surviving Woodland period mounds interpreted along the Woodland Interpretive Trail. Rathbun Lake was created after Congress authorized a dam on the Chariton River in 1954 to reduce flooding and drought, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed it in 1969. Nearby wildlife lands and a fish hatchery add hunting, fish production, and visitor facilities, making the park a major public gateway to the lake.