Permanent settlement of Portage began in the years following the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. The area became a plantation in 1850. The railroad reached Portage in 1902 and the township (T13 R6) was incorporated as a town in 1908. Initially agricultural, the community was home to the Portage Lumber Mill in the early twentieth century. A plume of smoke near the shore may indicate the site of a sawmill.

The card was printed in Germany for W. E. Ross of Portage Lake.