In 1920, three brothers Jack, Bert and Jim Sr. founded Goodfellow Bros. Inc., a construction company in Wenatchee which they incorporated in 1929. The company's work in the early days focused on jobs on difficult terrain and in isolated places.

Jim Goodfellow Sr. of Goodfellow Brothers Construction at Grand Coulee Dam in the early 1930s.

According to a company history written in 1971 by Jim Goodfellow Sr., the company's first job was a subcontract on the Swakane Road project in 1920. Goodfellow Bros. put up a camp and cook house for about 40 workers, many of whom were immigrants and ran a school for those wishing to get citizenship.

In 1929, the company won its largest job the Vantage Ferry excavation which was also one of the largest rock jobs let by the state highways department at the time. That same year, it also excavated the foundation for the Rock Island Dam. In 1933, it went on to be the first contractor to work on the excavation of Grand Coulee Dam.

Goodfellow built the dams and canals of the Leavenworth Fish Hatchery, a great deal of irrigation and reclamation projects within the Columbia basin, and all but one section of the highway and railroad relocation above Rocky Reach Dam. It also contributed to building major highways, such as Stevens Pass, the Rock Island Highway, the Great Northern Roadbed and interstate highways, including 13 miles between Ellensburg and Yakima. In1963, the firm built Interstate 5 between Nulle Road to Samish Inn, near Bellingham.

Today, the company builds dams, bridges, harbors, marinas, airports, golf courses and housing developments in Washington, Utah, Oregon, Idaho and around the United States.

In 1972, Jim Goodfellow Jr. and son Steve, bid the Kihei Sewage Treatment Plant in Hawaii for Boeing Co. That job began a surge of work in Hawaii where the current generation, Steve and Dan, sons of Jim Jr., are located. The company has permanent offices in western and eastern Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii.