One of the first cars to be driven up the Alaska Highway is going up for auction

A piece of Alaska history will go up for auction on Thursday: a 1930 Packard roadster said to be the eighth civilian vehicle to drive the Alaska Highway.

The pedigreed "Deluxe" convertible coupe is part of the estate of Marco Spezialy, a long-time Anchorage businessman who died last August. According to documentation that comes with the car, Spezialy bought the car from Roger McDonald, a Palmer farmer, in 1961. McDonald had bought it from "Cappy" Roach, son of Anchorage judge L.D. Roach, in 1951.

The younger Roach bought the car in Seattle in the spring of 1946 and drove it up the Alaska Highway, which had just been opened to the public. The trip took some weeks on account of the car's going off the road at least once. When Roach came through the checkpoint at the Alaska border, he was informed that only seven other civilian cars or trucks had crossed it ahead of him.

In 1930, Packard made more luxury cars than any other manufacturer in America. The coupe originally cost $3,350, around $48,000 in today's money. It featured wooden-spoke wheels, a rumble seat, a wooden rack over the rear bumper that could be lowered to hold luggage, external rear-view mirrors chained to the spare tires mounted at the front of the foot-wide running boards, and the famed "Goddess of Speed" hood ornament.

The two-day estate auction, which will start on Wednesday, features Alaska pieces including a child's Chilkat dancing robe, artwork and antiques, like assorted revolvers dating as far back as the Civil War. It also includes several other cars, mostly Spezialy's.

"We get antique cars a couple of times a year," said auctioneer Duane Hill with Alaska Auction Company. "But this is by far the most significant collection we've had to sell in recent history."

Spezialy, who arrived in Alaska in 1948, was best known to locals as "Mike." He owned Mike's Chevron at Sixth Avenue and Ingra Street when gas stations doubled as mechanic shops. When his garage crew wasn't working on customers' cars, they were working on restoring Mike's treasures.

"He loved those cars," said Hill, who estimates that Spezialy might have owned as many as 17 at one time.

Other rigs at the auction are a 1926 Model T sedan, a Model T truck, a 1964 Thunderbird, a well-used Studebaker flatbed truck from the 1950s and a gorgeously art deco-styled 1948 Buick Roadmaster convertible that may be as coveted as the Packard among automobile fanciers.

But antiquity is a big consideration in the collectible-car world. Similar Packards from that era are listed at $180,000 or more on internet sites and Hill confirms at least one auction sale of $160,000.

Since the auction will be carried live on the internet, Hill is expecting a lot of out-of-state interest.

"We've had an inquiry from Norway," he said. "We've had calls from Seattle."

But given the Packard's role in Alaska's past – it is surely the oldest running vehicle to have driven the Alcan in the year it opened to civilian traffic – Hill would really like an in-state buyer to call out the winning bid.

"I hope it stays in Alaska," he said.

More information about the auction is available at alaskaauction.com.