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The Menefee land was a suitable northern property.
It was a clear night when Sutphin and Utterback established true north by observing the North Star (Pblaris). Books on surveying from the late 1880s and early 1890s, detail the complex procedures used to create a true meridian line. Suffice to say you really had to know your stuff: surveying, astronomy, mathematics, rules and regulations, etc.
In setting the southern and northern markers, one surveying source recommended using granite monuments about four feet long and seven by seven inches square, embedded vertically in the ground and set in several courses of concrete. The tops were to stick out about fiveinches. By going below the frost line the monuments would be immobile. The tops were to be leaded in the center with a brass dowel one inch in diameter and three inches long. North-south, east-west lines were cut in each brass dowel, as well as some identification, such as South Monument, 1896. Whether the markers were like these is unknown, but they were similar.
Magnetic North
We do know from Sutphin and Utterback’s bill that they determined the declination of magnetic north on April 6,1896, probably about 10:30 a.m. . It turned out to be 3 degrees 52 minutes and 00 seconds west of true north. Surveying manuals
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