Powerful telescopes show that it is really three stars in a group.
Drive a long stake into the ground. Then take a shorter stick and get down on the ground with it. Move it around until you can sight across the tops of the two sticks as if you were aiming a gun at the North Star. When the three points the two sticks and the star are in an exact line, drive the short stick into the ground. A line joining the two sticks will run north-south, with the tall stick marking north.