&NA;We determined the concentrations of 25 elements in soils typical of the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and Blue Ridge at 50 sites in South Carolina. Our purpose was to gather baseline data on the elemental content of soils for use in dealing with land application of wastes and other environmental issues involving metal content in soils. Concentrations of more than one‐half of the elements were higher in the Blue Ridge and Piedmont soils than in those in the Carolina Sandhills, Upper Coastal Plain, or Lower Coastal Plain. Concentrations of Al, Ba, Be, Cd, Co, Cr, Fe, K, Li, Mn, Na, Ni, Rb, S, Sb, Sc, V, and Zn were correlated positively with clay content. Selenium and Y were correlated negatively with clay content. Several of these elements (Al, Ba, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Ni, S, Se, V, and Zn) were correlated positively with soil pH, but correlation coefficients were generally less than for correlations with clay content. Land use, according to cropping history, was not a significant factor affecting elemental concentrations. Sites that had been cropped to cotton or pastures for long periods of time had slightly higher concentrations of As and Cu, respectively, but differences were of little consequence. Soil Ni concentrations were higher at forest sites compared with all other sites, which may have been due to more effective biogeochemical recycling at forest sites resulting in higher soil retention. We found no evidence that soil at the 0‐15‐cm depth was enriched with any elements. Concentrations within the 0‐15‐cm depth were no different than those within the 15‐30‐cm depth, indicating that any enrichment that may have occurred because of anthropogenic activities had become distributed throughout the 30‐cm depth as a result of tillage and natural processes. The maximum value and geometric mean of Cd concentrations were considerably greater than values reported in two other surveys of U.S. soils. Some sites in all of the land resource and land use categories had concentrations of As and Cd that translated into soil loads exceeding 30% of the cumulative pollutant load limits cited in the USEPA 503 regulations.