The Devil's Encyclopedia: D
The Donner Party
The Donner Party was a group of people who led a wagon train toward California, leaving in C.E. 1846. Today, most references to the Donner Party are to describe something as slow-moving. The modern counterparts are usually so described as a reference to bureaucracy or other administrative issues such when dealing with the Department of Motor Vehicles. To a lesser extent, it will be applied to attitudes or systems, with the speaker implying that change would be progress and that the current state is outdated.
The Donner Party itself was made up of 87 people who left from around Springfield, Illinois. The namesake of the party was George Donner and his family, who were among the members. The group was hoping to take advantage of the economic opportunity present in the territories that the United States acquired from Mexico not long after the Donner Party's journey finished. The notoriety of the Donner Party stems from the group getting trapped in a lengthy snowstorm and some members practicing cannibalism with the bodies that had already died as they waited for rescue parties. The reference to the speed really has to do with being a wagon train in the first place, as few groups traveling by wagon train have recognizable names. However, a wagon train would leave right after winter and hopefully make it to the West Coast before another winter hit, to avoid the danger of the season, so the speed and the cannibalism are related. Trips across the country that groups made later were made less dangerous with the advent of Holiday Inn Express.
Numbers vary by source regarding the number of survivors, but a PBS program notes it as 41 dead, 46 survivors1, and 1 Richard Hatch. Whether or not the Donners ever managed to hold bitchin' keggers (right) is not well documented.
1http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/donner/filmmore/pt.html