Though it’s most recently been in the news for the nearby discovery of human remains, Portal Hunting Club won’t be becoming a macabre tourist attraction anytime soon. In fact, it’s not easily located and the members like it that way. On the edge of the thick and foreboding Bulltown Swamp, where Long, McIntosh, and Liberty counties meet, this cinderblock clubhouse has been home to the Portal Hunting Club since 1956, but the club has much earlier origins. [The clubhouse itself is just inside Long County]. It was established by men from Portal, a little town west of Statesboro. According to a great article about the club by Angus McCleod in Georgia Outdoor News, it’s the oldest hunting club in Georgia.

He writes: …The club was established back in the late 1800s. There were few or no deer in Bulloch County back then, so a group of hunters from Portal learned they could lease land in the corner of McIntosh, Liberty and Long counties to deer hunt.

Twice a year the men would load up their wagons, saddle their horses and bring their hounds and bird dogs for the two-day trip to Bull Town Swamp. The hunters would camp one night en route. The bird dogs would hunt along the way, and if one pointed to a covey of quail, the hunters would shoot. If a hound jumped a rabbit and someone shot it, they would have quail and rabbit for supper.

The members of Portal have hunted the property for about 110 years. They are believed to be the oldest, still-functioning hunting club in Georgia. However, there were two years during World War II when the club was closed. The Army was using the woods in and around Bull Town Swamp as training grounds. Of course they were using much of Long and McIntosh counties to train our troops. During those two years, the Army blew up the old barn that used to house the hunters.

After World War II, the Portal Hunting Club members leased an old home off Sandy Run Road in Liberty County. It was an old farm house with newspaper on the wall for insulation. A potbelly stove provided the only heat. It was a proud day in 1956 when the hunters moved into the existing clubhouse.

Besides the large country kitchen and the comfortable main rooms, Portal has two bathrooms and four sleeping rooms — very much like an old Army barracks where everyone sleeps in an open room with bunk beds...

Make sure to read Angus’s article. He details a fascinating custom of the club you’ll find interesting, I believe.