jvgr, Fulton’s banana history began in the 1920’s, and lasted through the 1960’s. Fulton is in the very southwest corner of KY, on the Mississippi River. This is part of the area when the Mississippi River ran backwards during the New Madrid earthquake of 1811. Anyhow, the reason Fulton became the banana capital was the railroads all went through there. Bananas that came by boat to ports along the Gulf, and would be loaded onto rail cars that were cooled by ice. Fulton was where the train cars would be re-iced, and the trains re-routed to their various locations. Amtrak still has service going through Fulton.
The banana festival started in 1963 and rand through 1992, featured a 1 ton banana pudding.