Note: The following is part of a series of columns looking at the founding and general history of southeast Georgia and Bulloch County. Portal, located about 15 miles northwest of Statesboro, was the headquarters of the E.E. Foy Lumber Railroad's northern Bulloch County operations and the site of the Foy Manufacturing Company until 1899. J. Edgar McCroan set up the first post office in “Old” Portal in 1893, and was the first postmaster.