International Banana Museum

International Banana Museum
Museum interior, July 2017
Map
Established1976; 48 years ago (1976)
LocationMecca, California
Coordinates33°31′42″N 115°56′36″W / 33.528350°N 115.943433°W / 33.528350; -115.943433
CuratorFred Garbutt
Websiteinternationalbananamuseum.com
Ken Bannister with his banana collection in 1976

The International Banana Museum was a museum located in Mecca, California, dedicated to the banana.[1] The one-room museum contained more than 20,000 items related to bananas.[1] In 1999, the museum set a Guinness World Record as the largest museum devoted to a single fruit. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum stated it would close.[2] As of August 2023, it remained closed.[3]

  1. ^ a b Tibballs, G. (2016). The World's 100 Weirdest Museums: From the Moist Towelette Museum in Michigan to the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb. Little, Brown Book Group. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-4721-3696-1.
  2. ^ "Museum Hours". Banana. Retrieved 2023-03-26.
  3. ^ "International Banana Museum: Salton Sea's Wacky Museum (Closed)". California Through My Lens. 2015-03-16. Retrieved 2023-03-26.