 With encouragement from his future brother-in-law Henry Hastings Sibley, Steele saw opportunities in the western frontier and traveled to Fort Snelling via the steamboat "Burlington", arriving June 18, 1838; he soon became a storekeeper at the fort.At that time, the land on both sides of the Mississippi River at St. Anthony Falls was controlled by the U.S. Government as part of the Fort Snelling Reservation.However, by 1837 over 150 squatters had staked unofficial claims on fort property.