Save our Portal Post Office

My Sister Deb Bernard and I (Loy Guzman) took over the Portal Post Office on June 1, 2023 when our Mom (Joan Jensen) retired on May 31, 2023. It took the USPS until August to get the contract turned over into the Portal Community Post Office LLC name. Our parents worked hard for over 40 years to provide postal service to Portal. They used their own money for repairs and the needs of the post office. Our father did the repairs and never once did they ask help from the community. When our father pasted away in 2017, our mom at that point needed help from the community because she only had her income now. My sister and I are trying to keep the hard work our parents had provided for Portal to continue. The contract does not cover all the expenses. In the near future we will put in for an increase on the contract but it is not guaranteed that we will get a raise.

Our parents Chuck and Joan Jensen

Just a reminder: October 1 is proclaimed Joan Jensen Day

Below is a letter from two community members who have lived here a long time explaining the importance of the post office for our Portal community.

Written by:

Raymond Mendez and Eskild Petersen

Support the Portal Post Office;

The Portal Post Office is dependent on our economic support to stay open. It is a contracted facility not an USPS facility. Over 300 people use the Post Office for their mail. If we all contribute it will cost each user very little.

Some might think it no problem if our P.O. was to close. Mailboxes and package delivery left in the front of the main road or side lane might do the trick for some but good cheer, community gathering spot, farmers market, bulletin board, stamps, jobs for a few residents and most importantly someone to help us with timely information as we all age would be a thing of the past. The drive to San Simon would now be our only local AZ Post Office station.

Preserving local institutions often means safeguarding not just a service but a sense of community, a shared history, and even an identity. This is especially true for rural landmarks like the Portal Post Office, which has served as a lifeline for communication and connection through generations. Its importance transcends its function as a postal service, becoming a gathering point and a silent witness to the evolution of its people and their stories.

Background

1. The first Portal Post Office opened in1905. It had a humble beginning. The road from Portal to the booming mine town of Paradise was improved so settlers would buy supplies in Paradise rather than Rodeo. A stage ran there from Rodeo and stopped to water horses at a spring near Mullens property homesteaded by ES Epley. A big sycamore was hollow and, in this Epley, put a whisky barrel, nailed on a counter, and served travelers. He put in a little store and applied for a post office as Cave Creek. That name had already been taken by a little place north of Phoenix. Epley asked the men loafing on the bench by the store to think of names and a miner suggested Portal because it was the gateway to Paradise and the mines. It didn't seem so important that it was the opening to Cave Creek Canyon.

2. The Post Office has changed location many times in the 120 years since then.

3. In 1921: A railroad man, Raymond Roush and his wife Anna, left horseshoe canyon to buy land around the first stage stop. They built an adobe house above and a small store where Anna ran the post office. She later married Colonel Pugsley.

4. In 1963 Portal had a traditional USPS maintained Post Office with the zip code of 85628. We lost that USPS Post Office a few years later because of internal strife in our community which made the Postmaster in Tucson combining Portal with San Simon with the zip code of 85632 but he allowed a private contract branch to operate the service in Portal. It became a Contract Post Office then still housed in the General Store.

5. 1965: Red Jensen bought Newman's store and inherited the Post Office. Rich and Mary Winkler operated the store till it was sold to Codd’s.

6. In 1982 a slight case of embezzlement caused the regional postmaster to close the operation but a town meeting and, appropriately, a letter writing campaign, moved the official to leave us a post office if a building and postmaster could be found.

7. Joan and Chuck Jensen won that contract as a branch of the San Simon Post Office. In July 1983 the Post Office moved to the old School House building owned by the San Simon School District where it is housed now. They put in a low bid which included them paying the electricity, telephone, propane and maintenance bills, bonds and insurance. They provided the service for the next 4 decades.

8. In August 2023 the contract for the Post Office was transferred to the Portal Community Post Office LLC. A move required by the USPS regional office in Aurora, Colorado that handled the contract with Portal Community Post Office, LLC

The cost of keeping the Post Office in Portal currently is about $25,500 annually. Clerks $19,000, Bonds, telephone, credit card machine fees, Insurance; Internet, repairs, utilities etc. $6,500

Income is $10,000 from Contract. Thus $15,500 is needed every year to keep the Portal Office Open. If each of the 300+ people who use the services of the Post Office gave $62 a year or about $5 per month it would secure it stayed open.

You can help by either writing a check to Portal Community Post Office LLC, BOX 16411 Portal AZ 85632 or donate via the GOfund.me website.

One Room Schoolhouse before it became the Portal Post Office