1993 Toyota Pickup, Manual Steering Issue

Ok, first post here :)

Here's my vehicle:
1993 Toyota Pickup(not a t-100, just a "truck" or "pickup").
Engine is a 4 cylinder, 22R-E
97,000 Miles(actual mileage)

Ok, a little background. This car was "grandma owned" for a long time, and has only had about 3000 miles put on it in the last 5+ years(less than 300 have been put on it all of this year). Of course that has presented a little bit of an issue cause she didn't exactly take it in to get looked at a lot. Well it passed into my hands and other than some general tune-up related issues(which I think I can handle), the manual steering seems to be not working 100%.
Forgive me if I use the wrong terms, I'm no mecanic, but I'll do my best to decribe what is going on and what I can see.

The wheel is very, very, very hard to turn unless the vehicle is in motion. I've driven manual steering vehicles before, and this is far and away the most difficult wheel to turn that I've ever seen. When the vehicle is moving, it gets a little easier, but not much. U-Turning is horribly hard as the vehicle simply doesn't want to have the wheels turned far enough. Even making a simple 90 degree turn is very difficult to do and requires two arms tugging pretty mightily at the wheel. Per the grandma, the vehicle has never had any leaks, and while I haven't seen any evidence of leaks in the days I've had it, the manual steering gear box(I hope i'm phrasing that right) is awful dirty as if it has leaked a lot in the past.

I'm hoping it could be something simple such as the gear box being empty of gear oil, and requiring only a new gasket and refill of oil. Does it sound like it could be something simple like that...or is it probably something much more "uh-oh" worthy?

I'll answer any questions you may have, and thanks for reading my post.

I'm guessing that the pick ups are all power steering, but I am not certain. In any case if you want to know if you have a current leak, you should take it to the car wash and give the engine a good wash (you'll want to avoid spraying the distubuter cap, alternator, battery and wiring in general). Take a look again after a few drives to see if you spot a leak.

Jai

Have you checked the oil level in the gear box ?