 In 1883, Wheeler was employed by the Canadian Government on pioneer surveys in the Northwest Territories, which then included the future provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta and parts of what are now Manitoba.In 1884 he sub-divided a number of Canadian Pacific Railway townsites along the line of railway construction.In 1885 he was appointed a technical officer of the Topographical Surveys Branch of the Department of the Interior in 1885 under Dr. Edouard Deville, Surveyor General of Canada, where he was trained in the specialty of photo-topographical surveying then being applied by Dr. Deville to the mapping of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.