The people who live here speak the Gubat language which is also a dialect of Waray-Waray of Eastern Visayas, a Southern Sorsoganon sub-language and they were called Gubatnons.

Gubat was originally a big barrio of Bulusan, inhabited by a few Tagalogs, Visayans and Albayanons who travelled on foot to hunt wild animals.

These people built their homes close to the shore and called their location Buri, which today is the barrio of Buenavista.

Legend has it that during one of those raids, the pastor along with the townspeople held up a statue of St. Anthony to ward off the attack, praying for a miracle.

The town settlers had to move a number of times before finally deciding to settle at a place they considered safe and peaceful.

The locals, being poor, urged the town captain, Don Juan Bonifacio, to require all men to contribute one cubic meter of "talaksan" (coral stone) apiece.

In November 2006, Gubat became the site of a scientific expedition by astronomers Dr. Armando Lee, Bamm Gabriana, and Rochelle Derilo to observe the rare Mercury transit.

Although, the dominant religion is Roman Catholicism, there are Gubatnons devoted to: Poverty incidence of Gubat Source: Philippine Statistics Authority[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] The main livelihoods of the people, then and now, are agriculture and fishing.

There are also jeepneys that provide transportation to Sorsogon City, Bulusan, Barcelona, Prieto-Diaz, Casiguran, Irosin and local barangays like Tigkiw, Bentuco and Benguet.