In the late 1870's and early 1880's the coalmines were not producing the coal as they first did and some of the mines started to close. The Buttsville Mines, owned and operated by J.E. Butts Jr, closed in 1879. Other mines were opening in Pennsylvania and it was cheaper to get that coal to the market from their locations. The Buttsville Mines produced about 25,000 tons of coal yearly. Over the life of the Buttsville Mines, it produced over 138,000 tons.

  The Big Shanty area was now in the fury of creative energy in oil production. On Jan 11, 1877, Anderson and King are in the process of drilling a test oil well in Big Shanty.
             The King and Conkle well on March 29, 1877, was producing a good 10 barrels of oil daily. The price of a barrel of oil was at $2.30 in the Bradford Market.

Some of the names of other early oil producers in the new Lafayette territory of the 1864 Arch Bridge railroad line were G.H. Van Vleck, Vandergrift, Forman, Green, Donahue, W.S. McMullen, Mills, Straight, Johnson, and the Forest Oil Company.

The Straight & Johnson test oil well was drilled April 22, 1881, on lot 93 of the railroad lands, southwest of Big Shanty on the East Branch Tuneangwant.

From the grade of the 1864 Arch Bridge many old abandoned oil lines can be seen running under the railroad grade through the culverts.

The Niagara Oil Company and other independent oil companies had hundreds of oil wells producing in the Big Shanty area.

Today you can see old abandoned oil lines laying in Orange Creek, running through the 1864 Arch Bridge and down towards the East Branch Tuneangwant. A Dresser-manufactured oil valve frozen in time, that once controlled the flow of oil, lies only 30 feet from the Arch.