Background information on trace elements is important in quantifying possible nutrient excesses or deficiencies related to animal and human health. Given the increasing emphasis on food quality, it is important to know where specific combinations of soils and crops result in unfavorable or favorable crop quality. Geochemical information is also important in assessing background levels for environmental assessments and to adequately evaluate potential hazards. Geochemical distributions are typically shown graphically using various geostatistical methods. An alternative method for displaying the natural distribution of geochemical data is the soil survey. Soil survey incorporates soil and landscape forming factors and processes that influence distribution of trace elements both in soil parent materials and in mature landscapes. Soil survey also offers a logical means of extrapolating results from detailed studies. To illustrate the potential of the soil survey to display trace elements, data for Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn collected from north-central North Dakota during the USGS National Geochemical Survey were summarized and displayed using SSURGO spatial data. The National Geochemical Survey was conducted throughout the state in cooperation with personnel from the North Dakota Geological Survey, the Department of Soil Science at NDSU, and the USDA-NRCS. Total elemental data were summarized by major soil series, soil horizon, and parent materials, and in this respect, provide soils information typically absent in earlier USGS surveys. Detailed geochemical information for three benchmark catenas in north-central North Dakota is being used as a model of short-range variability to compare with the regional data.