Revisiting Where Arthur Morgan Died: A Red Dead Pilgrimage
As an avid Red Dead Redemption 2 player, I am still moved by the tragic death of Arthur Morgan. Despite playing through many times, I find myself returning to the remote cliffs of Ambarino where his body was laid to rest. What secrets hide in those high places, and what happens there now nearly 20 years after Arthur’s story concluded? As we approach the 10 year anniversary of Red Dead Redemption 2’s release, it is the perfect time to revisit our cowboy antihero’s final moments.
The Journey to Arthur’s Grave
Nestled high in the Grizzlies East of Ambarino, an overlook near the peak of Mount Hagen offers a stunning panorama – the perfect burial place for an outlaw poet like Arthur. To visit his grave from the road, head north from Bacchus Station into the high trails. The path grows perilous as loose scree threatens to take out man and horse alike. The temperature drops sharply just as the last switchbacks come into view etched against the sheer rock face.
Finally surmounting the ridge, Arthur’s plot lies a few hundred yards ahead tucked beneath the natural arch of two pines twisted together by endless mountain gales. Even if you somehow missed your companion’s final moments, there is no mistaking that this quiet bower sheltered someone important.
The stone itself shifts in appearance depending on Arthur‘s path through his last months: plain unvarnished wood for darker souls drifting low across the world, or a grand local stone bedecked with alpine flowers for those walking upright. An eagle watches over the good from the upper branches while coyotes lurk behind the bad man’sMarker.
Either way, it is a scene humbling in its solitude looking out across half the western frontier – somehow still not enough room to contain the memory of your friend.
Highs and Lows: Honorable Ends and Violent Departures
Just as the grave shifts in appearance based on Arthur‘s choices, his final moments themselves reflect divergent ends…
A man of honor faces the sunrise head-on, having fought back the encroaching darkness for as long as possible. His TB-ravaged lungs fill with the mountain air for a few moments more as he thanks those close to him before collapsing back onto the ground.
The other Arthur staggers half-blind through thunder and mud, cursing a world he feels betrayed him. Frissons of fear and anger jolt his frame just as the lightning shocked the sky minutes earlier. Two fighting dogs mirroring their dying alpha until the very last.
There is poetry even among the beasts of ourselves.
The Reality of Arthur‘s Consumption Sentence
While treatable today given early diagnosis, at the dawn of the 20th century tuberculosis represented nothing short of a death sentence. Approximately 1 in 170 Americans died from consumption every year – sending tens of thousands to early graves just like Arthur‘s.
Tuberculosis is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis which most often attacks the lungs and chest cavity. Without modern antibiotics, this meant weeks or months of bleeding lesions, difficulty breathing, weight loss and fever ultimately ending in suffocation from shredded tissue.
In Arthur‘s case, initial exposure likely occurred…
Over 3-6 months the infection would have spread silently as the Van der Linde gang‘s fortunes fell apart in Saint Denis and beyond…
Until finally collapsing on the mountain trail overlooking Beaver Hollow, his family and dreams equally ravaged by forces beyond control.
If nothing else, it was a wake up call unmasking Dutch‘s true nature by demonstrating who abandoned the dying and who made excuses.
The Living Left Behind: John‘s Journey and Dutch‘s Downfall
With his dying breath, Arthur tells John Marston to run – not out of fear, but hope for something greater than this life.
Over the next few years we witness John‘s long road to redemption in Arthur‘s honor, building a ranch from nothing just as his mentor once guided him from boy to man. Despite later hardships, one imagines Beecher‘s Hope silent at dusk on occasion – John glancing up at the purple clouds and murmuring a little thanks.
If that peace encapsulates the light Arthur‘s memory brought out in people, rogue former leader Dutch van der Linde descended rapidly into darkness afterwards like some villain in Gothic literature. Bereft of his closest advisors, he forged a new violent tribe from whoever would follow…
Two sides of the same coin.
The Ever-Lingering Legend of Arthur Morgan
While later members may not recall much about him personally, a certain energy surely permeates…
Nearly a decade on from its release, RDR2‘s protagonist continues capturing our shared imagination through…
More than anything it is a testament to Rockstar‘s writing and technical mastery that such a brief virtual existence sparked so much intrigue for so long after. We fill in details where games cannot convey them – writing stories upon stories from the barest of scripts and textures.
Taking the long ride up to Arthur‘s grave is but one small act of devotion in the greater mythology still under construction.
Revisiting the cliffs where Arthur drew his last does little to diminish the mystery surrounding both man and legend. If anything, the years only layer on more complexity and meaning whether in John‘s quiet hopes for the future or Dutch‘s final chaotic acts.
One wonders upon returning to that peak overseer what dreams and secrets lie buried alongside Mr. Morgan…or if, like the eagle drifting on the mountain thermals, his soul took flight to destinations unknown.
I for one intend to keep wandering the hills of Ambarino – picking herbs, hunting game, searching out new strangers, helping souls in need; the little quiet acts of beauty and community Arthur showed were possible if we but open our eyes to see them.
Perhaps you‘ll even join me by the campfire some evening to exchange stories old and new by the golden light of memories past and future.
