 J.R. Booth was North America's largest timber-rights holder at the time and was also the owner of the world's largest lumbering operation, located at Chaudière Falls on the Ottawa River just upstream from Parliament Hill.Booth's sawmill operations could never run at full capacity because the output could not be carried out of the lumber yards fast enough.As a result of the transportation problems he experienced in the Ottawa area, Booth became an important participant in the development of Canada's railway system when he purchased two railway companies in 1879, the Montreal and City of Ottawa Junction Railway (M&OJ) and the Coteau and Province Line Railway and Bridge Company (C&PL).