When I started with Linux everything seemed to mount at /mnt in the filesystem. Later I started noticing everything seemed to be at /media. I took this to be a difference in the way different distributions were choosing to mount drives.
But I just came across this answer on askubuntu where nitsoft explains that /mnt is used for internal drives while /media is intended for removable media. Drives mounted at /media will show up in the launcher and on the desktop. That makes a lot more sense- thanks for the top nitsoft.