"Deadwood Gold...is a graphic well written story of the doings of people in the early days of Deadwood and the Black Hills...Stokes was a pioneer of Deadwood, was a miner." -The Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times, August 24, 1922 "Stokes was a pioneer in the Black Hills coming from Denver...in the winter of '75...mined for a time in Palmer gulch...his narrative brings an understanding of the methods of prospecting and mining and the conditions under which the pioneers labored." -Rapid City Journal, October 11, 1922 "Deadwood Gold is the first-person account of Stokes's activities as a Deadwood prospector, merchant, and news reporter." -Deadwood: The Golden Years (1981) "Deadwood pioneer merchant George Stokes said that a six-gun takes the place of courts, judges, and jury." -Crime, Justice, and Retribution in the American West, 1850-1900 (2017) In 1926, prospector and miner George W. Stokes would publish a narrative of his time as a Black Hills and Deadwood pioneer in his book titled "Deadwood Gold: A Story of the Black Hills."

While Stokes was working as a young man in old Denver, the call of the Black Hills came to him. Slipping round the soldier guard, with other adventurous young American companions, he was among the first to get to the new gold diggings. The stirring days he spent in the Black Hills were kept in vivid recollection during all his later years. His book covers the Black Hills, Deadwood Gold Rush, noted characters of Deadwood and past times, Homestake mine, mining trade tricks, the burning of old Deadwood, and much more of the exciting early days of Deadwood.