The original Portal stood 2 miles north of the current site on Old Portal Road and took its name in 1894 when the U.S. Postal Service approved a post office for Portal. The E. E. Foy Company of Effingham County built a mercantile store that became the center of the new town, which lay near the end of a private railroad Foy built to carry logs to his sawmill at Rocky Ford in Screven County. Farmers and timber workers prospered there, and prominent Portal family names included Davis, Finch, Parsons, and McCroan. By 1904, most of the area's timber had been cut, and the Foy Company turned to other uncut forests. After closing the company store, Foy sold titles to lots in Old Portal. In 1907, the Savannah, Augusta, and Northern Railway began serving this part of Bulloch County, and Portal's people moved to a busy community near the new railroad.