Soil samples were collected within a sixty mile radius of a zinc smelter complex located on the northwest boundary of Amarillo, Texas. Cadmium was extracted from the soil samples with nitric acid and cadmium concentrations detected by atomic absorption spectroscopy. Cadmium concentrations of approximately fifty‐fold over ambient (background) were detected within the Amarillo city limits. Wind velocity vector profiles were found to directly correlate with soil sample data and established the zinc smelter as the primary source of cadmium contamination in this area.