John Rudolphus Booth (April 5, 1827 – December 8, 1925) was a Canadian lumber king and railroad baron. He controlled logging rights for large tracts of forest land in central Ontario, and built the Canada Atlantic Railway (from Georgian Bay via Ottawa to Vermont) to extract his logs and to export lumber and grain to the United States and Europe. In 1892, his lumber mill was the largest operation of its kind in the world.He was familiar with all aspects of his industry, and one observer noted: