Your Complete Guide to the Mystery of Emerald Ranch RDR2
Emerald Ranch is one of the locations in Red Dead Redemption 2 where players can sell illegal goods, explore missions, and uncover its mysterious history and stories. The spot is located in New Hanover in the game and features a train station next to it as well. Hosea’s mission “The Spines of America” mentions that the town has closed most of its shops, but the town is still running. Additionally, the rancher’s daughter never leaves the house nowadays. This post will lead you to explore the mysteries shrouding Emerald Ranch RDR2.
Where Is Emerald Ranch?
Emerald Ranch RDR2 is located on the east side of New Hanover. It is to the south of a lake. The map below marks a red circle over the location.
What Service Does the Ranch Offer?
Emerald Ranch has basically no service to offer the players other than the fence, where players can sell and buy illegal items, and craft tools as well.
The place mostly consists of a few houses and land to grow crops. There are not many townsfolk either. The rancher has employed many helpers to take care of the land.
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What Makes Emerald Ranch an Interesting Place to Explore?
The game does not present outright of any interest point in Emerald Ranch for players to engage. However, players will learn from several NPCs in the game that Emerald Ranch is odd regarding several incidents:
- The town has declined with almost no shops, but it is still running.
- The saloon is closed due to gunfights.
- Seamus complains that the rancher is a nasty type, and his daughter never leaves the house after some point.
The NPCs who will give you these pieces of information are Hosea in the mission called “The Spines of America”, and a woman by the road whose horse is dead, needing a ride to Emerald Ranch. Players can find this woman in The Heartlands. The map marks the location in red below.
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What Clues Can the Players Find in Emerald Ranch?
There are several clues players can locate in Emerald Ranch that will answer the questions regarding this place. However, not all the clues are in Emerald Ranch. Players also need to investigate and explore the surrounding areas to find more evidence to piece the information together, like a detective game.
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The Rancher and the House
First thing players can easily investigate is the rancher. According to Hosea, the rancher is not an easy type to handle, from what he heard from Seamus. The workers who are working for him are afraid of him.
Players can head to his house and try to greet him. Usually, he is at the front door of the house, near a pile of boxes. The rancher will not start a friendly conversation with players. Instead, he will ask players to leave the house immediately.
The house is a two-storey green-painted building, with small farms for plants in front of it. There are also workers working in the farm. There are three doors to the house, but two of them are locked and one front door is blocked by boxes and the rancher.
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The Daughter at the Window
Near noon time, players can take out the binoculars and have a look at the window on the second floor of the house.
A woman will appear in front of the window, and she is the rancher’s daughter whom Hosea and the woman with the dead horse talk about.
Even if players kill the rancher, they still cannot gain access to the house through any one of the doors. The daughter will not come out either.
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The Saloon
The old saloon still stands as a dilapidated house at Emerald Ranch RDR2, and players can find it by looking for a one-storey building with “SALOON” written on a wooden board.
There are still three bullet holes on the wall of the saloons and some blood stains on the floor. The evidence indicates that there was a gun fight happening, and maybe, only one man died from the gun fight, directly shot by three bullets, because there are no other bullet holes besides the three, and the blood stain also remains at one spot.
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The Tomb of Joshua Burgees
On the right side of the saloon, players can spot a tomb standing there. The tomb has inscriptions as Joshua Burgess, accidentally shot, August 1898.
Combining the sight from the saloon and the location of the tomb, it is clear that Joshua Burgess was the man shot in the saloon by three bullets. However, it seems doubtful whether it was by accident or not because all three bullets focused on one area. It does make the story look like the shooter targeted and killed Joshua Burgess.
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The Letter from Annabelle
Players can find a letter from Annabelle to the southwest of Fort Wallace. Fort Wallace is in Cumberland, and the abandoned mail cart will be by the road on the grassland.
Besides several other letters, there is one from Annabelle, Miriam’s cousin. Miriam is the name of the rancher’s daughter. Annabelle mentions that Miriam has not gone out of the house ever since the death of Joshua, her lover. Moreover, Annabelle also asks Uncle Eugene (the rancher) not to keep Miriam in the house and not to be overly protective.
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What Is the Complete Story of Emerald Ranch?
By piecing together the evidence and clues from the previous section, players can have a solid guess of what happens in Emerald Ranch.
Firstly, Uncle Eugene, the rancher, is an overly protective father. It may be Eugene who walked into the old saloon and shot Joshua Burgess to death in 1898. Ever since then, the saloon was closed and abandoned, leaving the three bullet holes and blood stains there.
Secondly, Joshua Burgess, who died from the gun wounds, is buried right next to the saloon.
Ever since then, Eugene has become more extreme and controlling, keeping Miriam in the house all day with boxes blocking the front entrance. He is also next to the front door most of the time, scaring off all the passers-by who want to greet him.
There is another possibility that Miriam does not want to get out of the house because of grief over her lover. However, this cannot explain the vigilant behaviours of the rancher. Therefore, it is more possible that the rancher keeps his daughter in on purpose, and Miriam’s grief only makes this process easier and herself more controllable.
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Infographics to Help Locate All the Clues!
To help players quickly find all the clues related to Emerald Ranch, here is an infographic with steps and details. It concludes all the key information of this post!
FAQs
How to unlock Emerald Ranch RDR2?
Players can explore Emerald Ranch in New Hanover on their own without any mission in Red Dead Redemption 2, because the game is an open-world game. The ranch can be easily found on the map, marked with the name “Emerald Ranch”.
However, to unlock the fence service there, players need to finish the mission “The Spines of America” with Hosea. After hunting the Grizzly Bear with him, Miss Grimshaw will tell players that Hosea has a new business opportunity, awaiting Arthur to join at Emerald Ranch.
Can you find the daughter in Emerald Ranch RDR2?
Yes, players can find the daughter by using the binoculers to look at the second-floor window of the rancher’s house near noon. The daughter will apear in front of the window. Players can even spot her without the binoculers, but the tool will make the look clearer.
With that said, the daughter is inside her father’s house in Emerald Ranch all the time, ever since the death of Joshua Burgess.
What happened to the Emerald Ranch Saloon?
The saloon was closed based on what the woman with the dead horse says and what Hosea tells the players. Players can find the saloon by looking for a building with a “SALOON” board on it in Emerald Ranch. There was an “accidental” gunfight happening in the saloon, which killed a man called Joshua Burgess.
Contrary to the inscription on the tomb, the fact is that Eugene, the rancher, murdered Joshua because of his controlling tendency over his daughter. After the “accident”, the saloon was closed permanently. It may be Eugene’s way of isolating other possible pursuers of Miriam from coming to Emerald Ranch.
How to see the girl at Emerald Ranch?
Players can see the girl appearing in front of the window on the second floor of the rancher’s house. It is not difficult to see the girl directly from the front of the house without the binoculars around noon time. To get a closer look, players can use the binoculars from their satchels.
Conclusion
Red Dead Redemption 2 is an open-world exploration game filled with details and stories. While there are missions displayed on the map for the players to explore, there are also clues and information scattered here and there, awaiting the players to pick it up and piece the information together themselves.
Take Emerald Ranch as an example. There is no mission demanding that the players unveil the mystery of the rancher’s family. However, from what Hosea and the female NPC disclose, players are free to explore more of Emerald Ranch based on the clues they get from the NPCs. The clues add up together, making a convincing story and giving players the fun of being a detective in the game in the process of collecting easter eggs.
