American Fur Company's Western Outfit headquarters at Prairie du Chien, Sibley traveled the remaining 300 miles of wilderness by horseback. According to his letter to company president Ramsay Crooks dated November 1, Sibley finally arrived in St. Peters (now known as Mendota, Minnesota) on October 28, 1834. During his journey to St. Peters, Sibley was accompanied by Alexis Bailly, whose four trading posts Sibley would take over as head of the company's "Sioux Outfit" the following year. They spent six months together, during which Bailly warned Sibley that "the American Fur Company squeezed its small traders dry then dropped them like useless rinds." American Fur Company "Sioux Outfit" Henry Sibley officially took over as head of the American Fur Company's Sioux Outfit in 1835 at the age of 24. The Sioux Outfit was headquartered at St. Peters (now Mendota). The main store in St. Peters served five nearby Mdewakanton Dakota villages, the "mixed-blood" community around Fort Snelling, and groups of Dakota coming from the Cannon and Cedar River valleys to the southwest. Sibley also managed three distant posts at Traverse des Sioux, Lake Traverse, and a third location serving the Sisseton Dakota between the headwaters of the Des Moines and Big Sioux Rivers; these posts were staffed by hired clerks. In addition, the Sioux Outfit had two independent subsidiary traders, including Jean-Baptiste Faribault, Alexis Bailly's father-in-law, who ran a post at Little Rapids (near present-day Chaska), and Joseph Renville, who ran a trading post at Lac qui Parle on the Upper Minnesota River. Sibley had arrived in the fur traders' "frontier" with a sense of adventure, hoping to earn a quick fortune before triumphantly returning to "civilization." Unfortunately for Sibley, as Bailly had warned, it had already become difficult for traders to turn a profit through the traditional fur trade. Nevertheless, Sibley worked diligently to try to maximize profits, and according to American Fur Company records, the fur trade in Minnesota "was in its most flourishing condition" in the years leading up to 1837. Whereas fur traders such as Joseph Renville and Hazen Mooers had traditionally rewarded loyal Dakota hunters with generous gift-giving and access to credit, Sibley "sought to transform the fur trade into a completely modern business." He instructed the traders and clerks in his territory to limit credits to powder, lead and shot. Many Dakota hunters complained to Indian agent Lawrence Taliaferro about these changes. Hunters from