In October 2012, the community of Elgin became part of movie-making history as scenes were shot at the cemetery just north of town. For more than a day, movie makers, actors and support staff came to our town, used our facilities to film a scene to be included in the movie titled “Nebraska.”
Directed by Alexander Payne, he also filmed scenes in such small towns as Plainview, Stanton, Osmond, Lyons, Hooper and Battle Creek, featuring rural settings to tell the story of a “booze-addled father who travels to Nebraska with his estranged son to claim a million-dollar Mega Sweepstakes Marketing prize.” As is the case with all movies, many scenes are filmed and then they are edited into the final product (movie). Some scenes never make the screen, left to die on the editing room floor.
A man with ties to the Elgin community found himself in the movie. Dr. Jeff Yosten, a 1990 graduate of Neligh-Oakdale High School and the son of Avis Heithoff and the late Joe Yosten, is among the actors shown in a scene featuring an emergency room physician. In real life, Yosten is director of the emergency room at Faith Regional Medical Center. Avis said Faith Regional re-created an emergency room specifically for the movie. Yosten is shown in a scene with the movie’s lead character played by Bruce Dern.
