Swanzy was a station on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad and had a post office from October 1889 until December 1905. On June 24, 2002, Gwinn was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the "Gwinn Model Town Historic District, Forsyth Township, Marquette County, Michigan". The historic district encompasses the sections of Gwinn that were platted during the time Cleveland Cliffs was involved in the town's affairs. Although the original Manning Plan for the town was never fully implemented, the section of town that was platted remains faithful to the Manning plan. In 2015 it was rated by Business Insider as the most affordable town in Michigan. Recently Gwinn has experienced a boom of renovation and restoration taking place in the downtown area. Using federal funds the city has been beautified. Additional community funding has paid for the Community Clubhouse to have a complete exterior masonry restoration. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , all land. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,965 people, 851 households, and 584 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 386.5 per square mile (149.3/km²). There were 1,035 housing units at an average density of 203.6 per square mile (78.7/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 94.86% White, 0.92% African American, 1.48% Native American, 1.02% Asian, 0.36% from other races, and 1.37% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.92% of the population. There were 851 households out of which 29.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.2% were married couples living together, 9.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.3% were non-families. 28.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.31 and the average family size was 2.80. In the CDP, the population was spread out with 21.9% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 25.6% from 25 to 44, 29.2% from 45 to 64, and 15.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years.