New Swanzy began after the former community of Old Swanzy became a ghost town many years ago. The Forsyth Township Historical Society believes that the current town of New Swanzy which is about 3 miles from the old Swanzy, was called this from Welsh immigrants after Swansea, a famous seaport in Wales.

In the 1970's or early 1980's the town signs for New Swanzy were taken down when only cities with post offices could have signs stating the name of their location. In 1998, Forsyth Township, under the supervision of Joe Minelli, started action to re-install the signs and in the fall of 1999 purchased the signs for New Swanzy and installed them.

In 1998 the Gwinn Area Fun Daze parade Grand Marshal was Julia Stuart, a writer for the South Wales Evening Post, Swansea, Wales. She had been searching the world for towns related to or named Swansea or Swanzy and through contacts from a resident (Steve Syria) in Gwinn ended up here.